Mecklenburg County Commissioner Jim Puckett has responded to a press release from I-77 Mobility Partners that says construction on the toll lanes begins on Monday. The press release, from public affairs honcho Jean Leier, says, among other things, that the public private partnership between NCDOT and a Spanish company is “excited” to get under way.

Here is how Commissioner Puckett, a long-time business owner who can trace his roots back to the Revolutionary War in Mecklenburg County, responded:

“If this plan is indeed the culmination of decades of effort then all it represents is proof that the NCDOT is completely out of touch with the realities of geo-specific planning.

“The design of I-77 has obviously been taken from an engineering textbook and simply overlaid on a map with no understanding of the consequences. Ironically yet tragically, it is the failure of NCDOT to make any significant improvements in North/South corridors in the Lake Norman region during the period of exponential growth that has made I-77 the single worst stretch of interstate highway in America in which to implement HOT lanes.

“Even a quasi-qualified transportation bureaucrat could understand the negative implications of this plan if they had taken the time to examine the uniqueness of this area and how the roads are used.

“Having been conceived under a woefully inept Democratic administration and birthed under a Republican administration that while making great strides in transportation reform is seemingly incapable of overcoming the inertia of their predecessor’s mistakes, this project has become the single greatest example of how stupidity not only survives but actually intensifies within the halls of government regardless of who is in charge.

“That said, not all is lost. In either a flagrant disregard of the will of the people or a disconnect to rival that of Marie Antoinette, the current administration has managed to unite liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats, Yankees, rednecks, young and old into a solid voting block—active, engaged and hell bent on making their displeasure known at the one place guaranteed to American citizens, the ballot box.

“Those either too stupid to pay attention or too arrogant to care, stand to learn once again the consequences of stirring up the Hornets Nest better know as the citizens of North Mecklenburg and Iredell.  Taxation without Transportation has united nearly 100,000 formerly autonomous citizens into a political and social force that has not only found its voice but is clearly willing to speak.”

—Puckett is president of Long Creek Industrial Services Inc